Stefan Rzadzinski may have made the team with social media, but don't tell that to the guys he beat

by
Peter Bleakney | January 25, 2017

Small

Medium

Large

Here’s a nutty scenario. A hot-shot kid guitar player is invited to face off against Eric Clapton, Eddie Van Halen, Slash, Jeff Beck, and Joe Walsh. Seen by millions. No rehearsal.

Now try this one. A budding race car driver from Edmonton, fresh off two successful seasons in Canada’s Nissan Micra Cup series, wins a social media vote-driven “wild card” spot for the 2017 Race of Champions (RoC) in Miami. Contestants include Juan Pablo Montoya, Jensen Button, Tom Kristensen, James Hinchcliffe, Kyle Busch and Sebastian Vettel, to name a few. Seen by millions. Maybe 20 minutes of practice.

The difference? The second scenario is true. Welcome to the world of Stefan Rzadzinski. This past weekend made him a Canadian hero, even if his team didn’t make it to the finals.

Before the race, over breakfast in a Miami hotel, I ask Rzadzinski if he’s at all nervous. Perhaps a dumb question, as this talented 24-year-old with the beaming smile appears as confident as he is exuberant. “I’m not overwhelmed, but really honoured to be here.” The fact that he beat Scott Speed in one of the all-too-brief practice runs the previous day proves he’s up to … er, speed. And having garnered his winning 10,000 votes by, among other things, reaching out to the mayors of Calgary, Edmonton and Premier Notley of Alberta shows he’s got no lack of gumption. “I knew it was out of my hands when other people set up contests to get me votes. It got much bigger than me,” he grinned.

RELATED

This is the first RoC to be held in North America, and the premise is pretty simple – take a handful of the world’s top drivers from the world’s top series (Indy, F1, WRC, World Endurance, DTM, RallyX), place them in identical cars and have ’em face off mano a mano, running two laps on a pair of short, tight tracks that almost mirror each other. One is a little shorter than the other, but drivers cross over midway so it all evens out. The races last all of 38 seconds, give or take.

They are surely unfamiliar to the sparse North American crowd here at Marlins Park stadium – as are many of the RoC drivers. Nine-time Le Mans winner Tom Kristensen may be a god in Europe, but your average American has no idea who this Dane is. F1 star Sebastian Vettel gets plenty of cheers, but guys like rally ace Petter Solberg are just mysterious foreigners. The best-known drivers here are NASCAR bros Kyle and Kurt Busch.

Our young Canadian didn’t race until day two (where he paired up with Canuck James Hinchcliffe for the RoC Nations Cup), and this put him at a disadvantage since all the lads – you know, F1 Champions, Indy 500 winners, Le Mans legends – got an extra day of racing on the track. Tough room.

On day one I’m pit-side, watching Rzadzinski watch the pros. He stands out, looking a bit like a lost kid as the Vettels, Coulthards and Kannans of the world brush past him.

That night at dinner Rzadzinski gets some good news: His Nissan Micra Cup sponsors, Groupe Touchette (down here to lend support) are giving him full sponsorship for 2017. Also in Miami to cheer him on are Micra Cup co-founders Jacques Deshaies and Nissan Canada’s Didier Marsaud. The kid’s got friends.

The next morning we jump on the driver’s bus and on the run to the track, Rally X champ Travis Pastrana gives Rzadzinski some helpful tips, mostly regarding the handling of the cars. The RoC Car (a buggy with a 1.1L turbo four) is the most fun – chuckable, driftable and predictable. Just about every driver hates the three-wheel Polaris Slingshot as it’s a mess of both understeer and oversteer. And the NASCAR stock car is the most powerful. Luckily Rzadzinski was driving the stock car, which for him is familiar territory – he’s had some seat time in the NASCAR Canada series.

RELATED

We’re seeing a different Stefan today. Suited up (with a big red maple leaf on his back) he appears focused, calm and ready for business. He looks like one of them. Soon Stefan is strapped into a Vuhl (a 2.0L mid-engine track car) and lines up against Kyle Busch. It’s all over in less than a minute and Kyle just edges Stefan to the finish by a few hundredths of a second. So close. Stefan is angry at himself. “I made a mistake on the second lap. Was too hot going into corner one. I woulda had him.”

His next race is a different story. Driving the stock car, Rzadzinski beats Alexander Rossi by an eighth of a second. That’s the same Rossi who won the Indianapolis 500 last year. All of a sudden, Stefan goes from being a nobody to a story as the announcer’s words echo through the stadium, “Seems like this Canadian has got quite a future ahead of him.”

Then Rzadzinski does it again. He drives a clean race in the RoC “Buggy” to beat ex-F1 pilot Scott Speed. With Oakville’s Hinchcliffe only winning one of his heats, the Canadian team can’t move on in the RoC Race of Nations and Stefan’s day is done. Now he really sounds like a racer. He’s just knocked off two of the world’s best drivers, yet he’s beating himself up for the mistake he made in the first race against Kyle Busch. “I know I will appreciate this more later, but right now I just want to race.” We’ll never know who else might have fallen to Rzad that day.

One thing is for sure, he got noticed. Congratulations and back slaps were coming in fast and furious, and RoC co-founder and organizer Fredrick Johnsson was all over Rzadzinski, sending out an official RoC tweet “@rzadracing does it again! He beats Rossi AND Speed. Somebody give this guy a professional drive!”

Later that day, Rzadzinski says, “I didn’t just want to be a contest winner. I wanted to show I could back it up with real driving.”